News Briefs

Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa., former chairman of the U.S. bishops’ liturgy committee, sharply criticized what he called the “slavishly literal” translation into English of the new Roman Missal from the original Latin during a lecture on Oct. 22 at The Catholic University of America in Washington. • On Oct. 21 Caritas Internationalis launched an appeal for $3.4 million in aid to feed 35,000 Sudanese people who have suffered through violent conflict and years of drought. • Michael Sinnott, 79, a Colomban priest, continues to be held by unknown kidnappers in the Lanao del Norte Province of the Philippines, an area where armed Muslim separatist groups are active. • A German court has fined the traditionalist bishop Richard Williamson 12,000 euros ($17,860) for incitement for having publicly denied the Holocaust.